Sheila E moves beyond pop royalty

Preview by FEDERICO MONSALVE

Even after a couple of jazz albums, Sheila E. is still mainly remembered as a prolific percussionist turned vocalist of 80s pop.

She started her rollercoaster career early.

"I literally started playing when I was 5. My dad's band the Azteca was at some club in East Oakland, and he pulled me up on stage and put me behind the drumkit. That immediately sparked my interest in music."

By 17 Sheila had taught herself percussion and recorded on two albums with her father, Pete Coke Escovedo.

"I was flirting with the idea of becoming a professional athlete," she says. "I became good at sprinting because you had to in my neighbourhood to escape being beaten up.

"In the [San Francisco] Bay Area nationality didn't matter. The people I grew up with were hippies anyway, we always had parties and music, so the fact that I was a Latina wasn't a big deal. In school it became a different issue. It was always a black or white thing with nothing in the middle.

"I was close friends with Angela Davis [civil rights activist and Black Panther who later became one of the FBI's most wanted] and joined a gang. You had to do that really, just to be able to survive in that place."

By 1983, with her signature 12cm heels and big hair, she made a singing debut alongside Prince - who gave the young Sheila Escovedo her stage name - on his song Erotic City, the B-side to his number one Let's Go Crazy.

Sheila secured a record contract and released her debut album Sheila E. in the Glamorous Life and its title track, which she co-wrote with Prince. It spent two weeks on the top 10 charts in the United States and Britain.

"I guess it was my idea of a glamorous life back then. But looking back, you see it really wasn't as glamorous, it's a very intense lifestyle" says the now born-again Christian.

"It's hard for someone with my beliefs in this industry, but you just have to be strong."

A conflict of morals led Sheila to quit backing Prince during the early 90s.

"We are still good friends, but I left because musically I didn't like his direction. I didn't like all the cussing, all the negativity. Now he is actually changing, which is a good thing to see happen," she says, referring to Prince's recent adoption of the Jehovah's Witness faith.

The 47-year-old musician has played alongside Herbie Hancock, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Patti Labelle, Natalie Cole, Stevie Nicks, Don Was and countless others. She now records for Concord Records, a long-time purveyor of Latin jazz acts.

Her latest album Heaven ranges from the ethereal Kenny G-like sounds to evidence of her funk-era influences.

"One's music cannot stay the same. I have been doing a lot of growing as a person and that is what music is about - life experience and being able to explore how one's opinion and outlook changes."

Performance

* Who: Sheila E

* What: Superband with Abraham Laboriel Paul Jackson and Tom Brooks

* Where: Beaumont Centre

* When: Tomorrow, 7pm

* Tickets: $25